Choosing a good action film to watch with your family can be a challenge if you’re not looking for ‘intense’ or ‘dark.’ Here are nine options to consider that offer a brighter outlook.
The week is finally over. Time to unwind. Perhaps it’s time for a movie to stream? If so, is this your vibe for choosing a flick to watch with your family on a Friday night?
Dark
Unsettling
Scary
Violent
Well, not so much for me and my family. Though we sometimes cross into the more intense R-rated realm with our 16-year-old son, we often collectively prefer the more comfortable PG-13 zone. And we particularly like a more optimistic vibe…
Charming and smart
Fun and funny
Clever
Action packed
Yes, that’s more like it. That’s family friendly for us.
Once upon a time, it would be Indiana Jones… Men in Black… Jack Sparrow. Call it what you like, but I think you know what I mean.
Unfortunately, not that many get made these days. Any even fewer of these flicks hit the mark. So, I’m always searching for winners to add to ‘Barrett’s movie list’ for my family.
If you’re also interested in finding new film choices to add to your cue, here are my previous two PG-13 lists:
But as my above recommendations are a few years old, I’ve decided to pull together a more recent collection of PG-13 movies that meet ‘the criteria’ from 2023-2026.
So here are nine more movies for your consideration:
9 Action Flicks for Family Movie Night
Mayday (2026)
Directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein Stars: Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh Reynolds continues to nail the formula, and who knew Kenneth Branagh could be so funny?
“Hail Mary” (2026)
Directed by: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller Stars: Ryan Gosling and Sandra Huller This is not as light and breezy as my other picks, as it chronicles a long-shot mission to save humanity from extinction. But it’s a great buddy movie with warmth and humor.
“The Gorge” (2025)
Directed by Scott Derrickson Stars: Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy Romance/Action/Zombies. Hit it!
“The Fountain of Youth” (2025)
Directed by Guy Richie Stars: John Krasinski, Natalie Portman and Elza Gonzalez It’s a Guy Richie flick. Need I say more?
“Argylle” (2024)
Directed by Matthew Vaughn Stars: Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell Over the top and uneven, but you can’t help but chuckle throughout.
“The Fall Guy” (2024)
Directed by David Leitch Stars: Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt A remake of the TV series with old-school charm and lots of fun.
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” (2023)
Directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein Stars: Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Hugh Grant Though it couldn’t find an audience in its theatrical release, it’s absolutely delightful.
And let’s not forget the MCU! While many recent Marvel movies haven’t matched the MCU’s previous success, I think these two have definitely broken through…
“Thunderbolts*” (2025)
Directed by Jake Schreier Stars: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour and Wyatt Russell Yes, it underperformed at the box office (for a Marvel movie), but its dry humor is so winning. Plus, Harbour’s endless optimism as Red Guardian supercharges the adventure for this underdog team.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” (2026)
Soon to be released on streaming Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton Stars: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink and Mark Ruffalo Biggest box office of 2026 by far. And the best Marvel movie in a long time.
What’s Next?
I hope you enjoy the above films for your next family movie night at home. But as we all know, we always need to feed the pipeline.
The past has its ways of talking to you, even if you can’t directly hear it. Here’s what I learned after digitizing my fathers’ old 8mm film reels.
There’s that movie scene from “Iron Man 2,” where Tony Stark reviews old film outtakes of his deceased father Howard Stark. The raw film clips show Howard making a promotional film decades earlier. First, Howard is annoyed by child Tony, who plays in the background and ruins the scene. There’s no fatherly love expressed here.
But at the back end of the reel, Howard unexpectedly turns to the camera and seemingly breaks through time, talking directly to future Tony. Howard shares his love for his son, knowing at some point, Tony would receive his heartfelt message at the moment Tony needed it most.
On the one hand, this all seems a bit contrived, though not entirely implausible. But the scene really spoke to me. I’ve watched it many times. I’m drawn to it. And now, I finally understand why.
My Father was a Filmmaker I’ve just finished converting my father’s old 8mm family movies to digital files. He began shooting them before I was born and then continued throughout my early years.
But he gradually stopped his hobby, focusing more on his photography. My dad’s old film reels simply sat in a white box forgotten in the back of my family’s hallway closet.
My mother and grandfather with me on my first birthday
These films reappeared many years later when I was an adult visiting my parents for the holidays. My father felt inspired to set up his aging movie projector for me and my mom, and he ran some of these old 8mm films for us. It was remarkable to watch them for the first time.
I brought along my camcorder, and I recorded his presentation displayed on a pull-up screen that he had also lugged along with his projector out of the closet. But we didn’t get through all the films. More than half remained unwatched.
Fast forward a few more decades, and that white box of family memories eventually found its way to my house. (My father passed away in 2022.)
Rescuing Our Family Films A few months back, I decided it was finally time to try to properly convert all these time capsules, which had deteriorated somewhat, but were still viewable.
But the film-to-digital converter worked well enough to bring these silent moments back to life. And the quality was fine for my needs.
The conversion process was wicked slow, and I also found much of the content not worth saving. On the other hand, certain reels contained priceless moments of my parents and my paternal grandfather. And of course, I had to go through what seemed like miles of film to find them.
And then I stumbled upon one huge surprise buried in a strangely unlabeled reel. It was the day my parents’ families first met at my maternal grandparents’ house. It was shot like an old news reel covering some massive public event. (Of course, this was a big event for the two families.)
After I first watched it, it felt like I had jumped through a time portal to witness history. It’s a true gem. And now I’ve got it properly archived.
A Baby Surrounded by History I also converted numerous clips of young Barrett, from baby and toddler to little kid. Sure, I was cute, but I think the greater value in these scenes comes from looking at everything around me- the people, the styles and the environment. Here’s my grandfather with me and my mother on a sunny 20th century afternoon in New York City’s Central Park.
Was the Payoff Worth the Grind? I mentioned the digital conversion process takes time. Yes, lots of time!
Each 3-minute reel took me 33 minutes or so to convert, as the digitizer snaps a photo of each frame and then stitches it all together into an MP4 file on an SD card (slick but slow). And I also had some larger reels to deal with… those took hours!
And it’s also not a ‘set it and forget it’ process. You can’t totally walk away. That’s because the film can easily jam in the converter. It’s not so much the unit’s fault. It has more to do with the condition of your film and quality of the splices. Any aberration, and the converter will jam. So, I needed to stay in the room to be able to see what was going on.
Plus, I found on several occasions that the film had broken mid-reel. This happened at some point decades back, and my father had never rejoined the pieces. Rather, he simply wrapped the rest of the film on top of the reel, leaving this booby trap for the future to figure out.
Give the Job to the Pros? You might say that my experience clearly points to the value of simply shipping your box of misbehaving film reels to a company to do the work for you. They’ll deal with the mess and create better-quality conversions. And think about all the time you’ll save.
The only big downside is accepting that you’ll also be paying to convert footage that you otherwise wouldn’t want to save. Plus, depending on the number of reels you’re converting, it eventually becomes more cost effective to do it yourself.
There’s no right answer here. It’s whatever makes more sense for you.
Silent Truths and Manufactured Moments I don’t think my father ever considered that I would attempt this project. Our family history is sufficiently documented in photos. I imagine as far as he was concerned, these films were simply his own hobby for him to enjoy during those years. Nothing more.
But of course, I was searching for something more. I wanted to understand more about my past.
As I reviewed the converted films, I looked for glimpses of certain ‘truths.’ I thought people in motion would reveal more than a posed photo. But I quickly realized there was plenty of posing going on here as well.In many of the scenes, my family acted like movie stars in front of the camera, exaggerating their movements and constantly smiling.
Those mannerisms may also have to do with the silent movie nature of 8mm film. Without audio on these 8mm film reels, of course my father couldn’t talk to me. So, I never got my Tony Stark moment.
First Steps But watching my parents interact during their early years together helped me fill out this optimistic first chapter in my own mind. Every story has a beginning, and I was watching theirs, however manufactured.
I got to see a bit more of my paternal grandfather. I have fond memories of him, and it was nice to see Grandpa in action again.
There was also a lot of footage of my mother, who loved the camera in those early days. She was my foundation as I grew up, and the film clips of us together warmly displayed those beginnings.
My mom and me dancing by the pool during a vacation
I can’t believe she’s been gone for twenty years. I’m so happy I now have these additional recorded moments of her.
But this project eventually leads me back to my father.
Look, we had a complicated relationship. Suffice to say, my father was a master storyteller, and I spent a lot of my adult life with him trying to figure out any number of little truths… and some bigger ones.
No, these old films didn’t answer any of them. But they did provide a bright view of my family’s life at the beginning. And I’d say that’s a real gift.
So, thank you, Dad. You were a pretty good filmmaker.
“I Built This for You” My 8mm family film conversion project is complete. No, my father never sent me a secret message like Howard Stark to fundamentally change my understanding of my past. But he did show me some things, and he captured a few priceless family moments along the way. There are even a few scenes of my father with boy Barrett having fun.
Here’s the story of how this vintage Bell & Howell 8mm movie camera found its way onto my bookshelf.
When old tech stops working, we usually discard it, like a malfunctioning printer or Wi-Fi router. While important to maintaining Tech Zen, this gear operating in the background usually isn’t at the forefront of our consciousness. Plus, once it glitches out, it’s entirely useless.
Why aren’t You Retiring It?
On the other hand, we tend to proactively retire other items in our aging tech arsenals when they’re replaced by newer models with more advanced functionality. Technically, this gear might still work, but it’s slower and no longer retains the original shine.
While it’s entirely appropriate to discard this older tech, we sometimes can’t actually part with it.
Why?
I think it has to do with the good memories created from their use.
No, it doesn’t make much sense, but if you’re already prone to holding onto ‘things,’ as a way to retain some of your positive memories, you may be a poster child for this scenario. (I’m certainly guilty of this.)
Owning a Little Piece of History
Another twist to this techno-hording phenomenon has to do with someone else’s old tech that you inexplicably crave.
If you acquire this ancient gear that you’ll never use, what’s the point in that?
No, this tech may no longer have any functional value, but its ongoing existence reflects something potentially more important…
I think it’s about taking ownership of the mystery of how this tech might have been used during a more glamorous bygone era.
This gear contains unknowable stories of the other people who’ve used this gear. You can only guess at the history.
So, it’s this mystery that creates an inexplicable psychological value in what otherwise would be viewed as junk.
From the Back of a Closet to the Front of a Bookshelf
Take, for example my father-in-law’s vintage Bell & Howell ‘Electric Eye’ 8mm movie camera from the 1960s.
He passed in 2008, but while he was alive, I was unaware of this camera or how he used it to document family events decades earlier.
It was buried in the back of a closet, forgotten and effectively lost.
When it was finally rediscovered, this tech relic had no use, superseded many times over by newer tech.
Still.
An 8mm camera from the 1960s. How cool is that?
And as it turned out, nobody in my wife’s family wanted it, and the camera was about to be thrown away.
So I rescued it.
And I placed the Bell & Howell on a bookshelf in my home office.
No, of course I’m not going to ever use it, but I still enjoy looking at it.
Sure, 20th century and early 21st century tech can have a certain physical gravitas that today’s lighter, sleeker, cheaper gear long abandoned.
And certain vintage tech has nice “craftsmanship.”
But the real allure is what you can’t really know.
The Joy of Creating the Story
There’s actually not that much mystery to my father-in-law’s camera. I, of course, know the family from which it came. (And yes, there’s also a box of old film reels. So, all of the recorded stories actually do exist.)
But if I had picked up the camera at a stranger’s garage sale or an antique store, then it really would be a mystery.
And that would give it even more value.
The value of an unknowable set of stories from a time long past.
Tales you could imagine from scratch.
When Old Tech Mutates into Art
But you also don’t need to dig so deep into the psychological to justify wanting a piece of ‘junk.’
If looking at a created object pleases you, then how is it any different from owning a piece of art or perhaps an antique?
I’ve got to tell you that having an old film camera on my shelf feels fabulous, especially if visual storytelling is your thing.
And that’s certainly my story.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
The why doesn’t always have to be a mystery, but it helps.
